Arata looks before him, a knight in armor intercepts the blow of Cayden. They parry Cayden’s blade with precision, the clock-headed beast is knocked off balance.

  Arata speaks up, “Sir Morgan, thanks, you’re just in time… His magic creates a second strike to follow his attacks.”

  Morgan was able to knock him off balance. I was on the backpedal… if he loses his position he'll lose his opportunity to make good use of his magic. I guess that’s the difference between a trained fighter and someone like me. Come to think of it, when we first met, Morgan led the group dispatched to handle that bug monster. Were they confident they could do that?

  Morgan dashes to the side, underneath the blind spot of Cayden, driving their sword into his side. However, the strike only serves as blunt damage due to Cayden’s new form, as his human skin peels away down there, the ribs that were glanced reveal themselves as pipes.

  Morgan shuffles back at their attempt, not quite understanding what Arata had meant by second strike. Morgan was only saved by Cayden's similar confusion of the situation.

  Cayden cackles, “Morgan, you surely must jest? Betrayal of New Mundi? Your betrayal shall be seen by the history books as nothing short of a shame to your bloodline. I shall ensure that once history is rightfully written by the winners!”

  Arata takes this opportunity to recollect himself, attempting to give a better explanation of the situation, shouting, “He’s become a faded now, he can cause an action to appear again at another point in time, brace yourself in case there’s a follow-up!”

  Arata rebounding, quickly parries the attack Morgan was standing blindly in the middle of.

  This wasn’t a losing battle for them, having two people did something similar to what Cayden’s ability was capable of. Cayden’s ability has the most practical use of doubling his tempo in combat; you couldn’t land more than a shallow hit on him ever because striking distance wasn’t safe with an impenetrable defense and the traps he can lay.

  Having two people alleviates the problem. Arata rushed to the side, he aimed at Cayden, yet not directly. The sword pulled down into Cayden’s glass blade, which Arata yanked on, lining up Cayden for another attack from Morgan.

  Morgan grips their sword by the blade, swinging the crossguard like a hammer. The weapon slams into the side of Cayden’s clock head, knocking him off balance, when suddenly, a blade pierces through the inside of Cayden’s mouth, coming from the back of his head.

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  The pertrusion was twisted and retracted; normally, this would be a killing blow, yet Cayden no longer had a brain. The figure stepped back into the shadows. I can't tell who that was, Selena? Clemence? One of Morgan's teammates? I can't tell because they're where the light doesn't reach-

  “Morgan, mind moving your position… we need to circle him. It seems his back has no effective armor.” Arata points out before sidestepping to the left with Morgan going right. Luckily, the threat of the third person leaves Cayden unable to safely step back to avoid encirclement. He respects the threat of whoever stabbed him; that's telling of something. He never really put effort into blocking the attacks that hit him in the light.

  Arata looks at Cayden's side, the skin becomes more human from this angle, he needs to keep us in the light to see us but we don't need to stare him face to face to see him.

  Arata sends an unopposed slash right into Cayden's ankle. Cayden bends down to a knee when a figure steps out of the shadows after disabling Cayden's arm.

  Cayden begins to shout in further rage, “Selena, you bitch! Morgan's was expected but you. You! Have the audacity to raise your sword against me? My squire to whom I promised a share in my future glory!” His human shell cracks apart. A killing blow is more necessary… only got one shot on a shaded area. I should've gone for the heart.

  Prismatic light fully escapes from its containment. Cayden completed shedding his human skin, light is restored to the world around them, before them standing a mass of machinery. Only small crevices show themselves as a path to victory. The metal’s not easy to punch through.

  But was that the key to winning? Even stroking soft tissue didn't mean a killing blow. Could there be a place where the shadow overlaps with his new form? Arata's sight recovers.

  Selena does not avert her eyes just yet. She studies Cayden and the incoming blade, studying it. Arata isn't fast enough yet again to save her as the blade comes crashing down.

  A shattering noise echoes throughout the streets. The one spot on Cayden's sword was still dull, struck by Selena's own blade. She has found his singular flaw, the achilles heel where the light didn't reach.

  She grips her hand by the blade, just as Morgan had done earlier, yet she does not have the same thick armor to protect her hands; she still swings down, cracking open Cayden's temple, the light slowly fades.

  The clock-headed fiend screams an incomprehensible noise before Cayden returns to silence, his corpse hits the floor.

  The colors around them fade; only the mellow sunlight remains to grace the world with its normalcy yet again. The world around them is repainted in it's natural colors.

  No matter the satisfaction of it all, Arata wasn't going to let loose ends go. It's not quite over yet… where's Beelzebub?